Bearing with one another in love

[Ephesians 4:1-2]“I, therefore, the prisoner of the Lord, beseech you to walk worthy of the calling with which you were called, with all lowliness and gentleness, with long-suffering, bearing with one another in love”.

As I was reading and reflecting on this word, my eyes fell on the last bit and remained on it. “Bearing with one another in love” and then in contemplation, I thought about what this really meant to me. When looking up for the word ‘bearing’ in Greek “anechomenoi” comes from the root word “anechomai” which literally means ‘put up with’. I began to recall when I’d put up with people and their acts. There were some instances where I got really annoyed and other instances where I felt cheated even for putting up with their behavior. But there have also been many instances of glory when I’d done that and was thankful to God for the wisdom of that moment.

Then I began thinking about how people may have put up with my behavior and actions. Things seem a lot different when we exchange our positions and now suddenly I felt a lot more compassion for the people whom I’ve had to deal with. I realized that patience is the key to bear with one another in love and guess what patience is one of the fruits of the spirit [Galatians 5:22]. Now I could complain that I am not a patient person and it’ll take me some time until I get to the place where I can bear with people or I could just believe God’s word that because the Holy Spirit dwells in me and patience is a character of the Holy Spirit, therefore I have patience within me waiting to be exercised.

This word of God changed (renewed) my mind and I found that whenever the opportunity presented itself, I could remind myself that I have patience within me and therefore I can bear with others and have compassion for them. Love is the essence here, without love even my bearing with them is pointless. Love helps us to deal with grace and makes us gracious which is the nature of God. If God didn’t deal with us graciously where would we end up? [Colossians 3:12:-14] says “Therefore, as the elect of God, holy and beloved, put on tender mercies, kindness, humility, meekness, long-suffering; bearing with one another, and forgiving one another, if anyone has a complaint against another; even as Christ forgave you, so you also must do. But above all these things put on love, which is the bond of perfection”

I’m not saying it’s easy doing this, but when was obeying God’s word easy for the flesh? So get back to walking in the spirit (as opposed to walking in the flesh where we will find nothing good dwelling there – Romans 7:18) and then only will it be possible to achieve this.

Finally, I leave you with [2 Timothy 2:24-26] “And a servant of the Lord must not quarrel but be gentle to all, able to teach, patient, in humility correcting those who are in opposition, if God perhaps will grant them repentance, so that they may know the truth, and that they may come to their senses and escape the snare of the devil, having been taken captive by him to do his will.”